


in love, you have a choice

by kira_khaleesi



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, F/M, High School, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, No Romance, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:48:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23824840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kira_khaleesi/pseuds/kira_khaleesi
Summary: When she is twelve, foster child Rey is placed into the custody of Unkar Plutt. Over time, she and her classmate Ben Solo become friends.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 4
Kudos: 16
Collections: 9 Squares Reylo Challenge, Kira's Songfics





	in love, you have a choice

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt word is: BELIEF
> 
> tw - Plutt is physically abusive (no sexual abuse).

_Today I got the answer_  
_And there's a world of truth behind it_  
_Love is out there waiting, somewhere_  
_You just have to go and find it._  


_I believe in love._

* * *

Rey is twelve when she is relocated to Plutt’s house.

Within three months of living with the blob of a man who always smells of cigars and cheap vodka, her hands are scarred and calloused to shit from working in his junkyard. _Earning her keep_ is what he calls it.

By the time she is fourteen, Rey is a skillful liar. Saving her one dress for when the social worker visits and putting on a smile so sweet you’d get cavities just looking at it. More often than not she has to wear a sweater with said dress, to cover the bruises and marks that litter her arms.

At fifteen, she breaks her arm defending herself against one of Plutt’s friend. He threatens to withhold food for a week if she tells the social worker the truth, so she lies and Plutt promises to fix the uneven stairs on which Rey had “tripped.”

Rey knows her life isn’t perfect, but she also is well aware that it could be much worse.

Besides, her parents will be back for her. One day.

She just needs to wait it out.

*********

Ben Solo is sixteen the first time he notices her, the quiet girl with freckles. Chestnut hair up in three buns and her skinny limbs dressed in clothes that have seen better days. They are in the same English and Pre-Calc class in the second term of grade ten.

He learns that her name is Rey when the teacher takes attendance, but when he asks his friends, it seems nobody really knows anything about her.

Doing his best to avoid being creepy, Ben watches her.

Slowly, he puts together a list of things he knows about Rey.

One - she is a foster kid.

Two - her hair is always done in three buns.

Three - her hands are covered in scars.

Four - she nearly always wears long sleeves, even when it’s hot.

Five - she gets good marks.

Six - she seems sad.

On the first day back from summer break in grade eleven, Ben decides that he wants to be Rey’s friend.

*********

Rey has just turned seventeen the first time that Ben Solo talks to her. Tall, more so than any of the other boys at their school, Rey’s hackles are immediately raised when he approaches her at her locker before the morning bell sounds.

“Hi.” Ben says as Rey slams her locker shut and clutches her books to her chest.

She narrows her eyes at him in response.

“I’m Ben.” He offers.

“I know.” Rey grits her teeth. “What do you want?”

He runs a hand through his hair, looking sheepish. “I was wondering if you wanted to sit with me at lunch? We could sit outside.”

Rey frowns, suspicious. “Why?”

Ben shrugs. “I thought maybe we could be friends. I mean - you can say no, obviously you can say no. I just thought I’d ask.”

Rey turns to survey the nearly empty hallway around them, looking to see if anybody is watching. If this is some sort of trick. They are alone.

Rey nods stiffly and mutters an “okay” before speed-walking toward her first class.

*********

Ben has been eating lunch with Rey for two months when he learns why she has scars on her hands and doesn’t participate in any extracurriculars or clubs at school. Most of her spare time is spent working at her foster father’s business, repairing cars and other electronics.

Soon after getting to know her, the other facts in his list begin to make sense.

She gets good grades because she feels she has to - Rey doesn’t want to be another statistic on a list of failed foster cases. She seems sad because she _is_ sad.

Rey doesn’t say as much, but Ben can tell that she is lonely.

It takes another month before he sees her smile for the first time. Ben thinks it might be the most beautiful thing he has ever seen.

He is surprised to learn that she wears her hair up in three buns because that is the hairstyle she had when she was found. After her parents left her at a gas station when she was five. Ben frowns when she insists that they are coming back, that it was a mistake, but doesn’t say anything.

She wears her hair in that style believing that they’ll come back, and that she should keep the buns so that it is easier for them to recognize her.

Ben has been friends with Rey for almost the entirety of grade eleven when his mother invites her over for dinner. She arrives at his door perfectly on time, wearing a dress he has never seen her wear to school and a small bouquet of flowers in her hands. He offers to take her hoodie and hang it up, but she declines.

She doesn’t say anything about it but Ben can tell that she is nervous. The dinner goes well, and he walks her home afterwards.

When he returns, he can overhear his parents talking in his mother’s office.

“I’ve never seen a kid eat like that.” Ben hears Han say.

“And what about that sweater?” His mother asks. “We are in the middle of a heat wave and she didn’t so much as roll up a sleeve.”

Ben stands on the other side of the wall to the office, listening.

“The scars on her hands...Ben had said she works at a car repair shop or something, right?”

“Yeah,” His mother says. “Her foster father has a business...what is his name, Plumb? Pluth?”

“Plutt?” Han asks, incredulous.

“That’s it.” Leia pauses. “What?”

Ben hears his father let out what sounds like a low growl. “Plutt is a real piece of shit. He’s a regular at the station. I cannot believe that a child lives in his house...the things I’ve heard about him.”

At the sound of his mother walking toward the door, Ben quietly jogs toward the front door, opening it and then shutting it loudly.

That night, he mulls over everything that he overheard his parents talking about.

********

In the second week of summer break, Plutt gets more drunk than usual and hits Rey across the face.

She has to call Ben and tell him that she can’t meet him at the park like they had planned. Rey doesn’t have any makeup to cover the bruising on her face, and it’s not like she can just show up in a mask and expect him to not ask any questions.

Rey hopes that he can’t tell she’s lying.

*********

In the second week of summer break, Ben asks his father if they can have a conversation. Rey phoned him during breakfast to call off their afternoon plans. She said she was feeling unwell but Ben could tell she was lying. He waited until he knew his mom would be out of the house for several hours, wanting to get his dad’s honest opinion.

Han has worked in the Chandrila police department his entire life, and Ben needs some advice.

“What’s going on, kid?” Han leans back in his armchair in the living room.

“I...uh. It’s about Rey. I need some help?

Han frowns. “Well, shit. I guess we’d need to have this talk at some point. When it comes to uh” he coughs. “When it comes to sex, you’ve gotta make sure that-”

The tips of Ben’s ears turn red. “Jesus dad! No. It’s not about that. We’re just friends.”

“Oh.” Han chuckles, looking relieved. “Good. Your mother would probably be a better person to ask about that anyways. What do you need?”

Ben swallows and runs his hand through his hair. “I overheard you and mom talking about Rey, after she came over for dinner?”

“Uhuh?”

“I don’t think she’s safe, with Plutt.”

Han rubs his chin and then leans forward to rest his hands on his knees. “What makes you say that?”

“The other day.” Ben tries to keep his voice from wavering. “The other day, on the last day of school, we were walking home and her sleeve caught on the fence. I pretended I didn’t see, but…”

“See what, son?”

“Her arm had bruises...it looked bad. One of them looked like, it looked like fingers.”

Han lets out a low whistle. “Christ. Are you certain?”

Ben nods. “And we were supposed to meet today but she phoned me saying she didn’t feel well, but it sounded like something was wrong.”

“Ok.” Han stands, pulling his cellphone from his pocket. “You understand, I am obligated to report when I suspect a child is in danger? This might...well this is going to turn Rey’s life upside down.”

Putting his face in his hands, Ben sighs. “I think she needs help, Dad.”

Han calls the station chief to inform him of the situation, and gets dressed, holstering his gun and badge. He tells Ben that a couple of uniformed officers will meet him at Plutt’s, and that he has called Leia to come back from her meeting immediately to take Ben to wait at the station.

*********

Rey is two months away from turning eighteen when she tells somebody the truth about Plutt for the first time. She doesn’t cry, just nods and answers the officer’s questions as succinctly as she can. When she emerges from the interview room, Ben and his mother are there.

They both give her a hug.

They fight tooth and nail to keep her in Chandrila, Han’s shouting over the phone getting shushed by Leia who tries to diplomatically explain to Rey’s social worker that relocating her before grade twelve is a bad idea.

In the end, they lose, and Rey is relocated to Jakku.

After the first day at her new school, Rey passes a familiar looking gas station on the way home. When she realizes why she recognizes it, she falls to her knees and sobs. Her steadfast belief that her parents would come back for her shaken for the first time in her life.

When Rey arrives home - home is now a place with a lovely old woman named Maz - she wipes her eyes and picks up the phone to call Ben.

It’s on that day, that Rey realizes he was the first person to ever give a shit about her.

That maybe, if it’s possible for someone like her to live in a clean house with a respectful and caring guardian...if it’s possible for a regular person like Ben and his parents to care what happens to her, that things might be okay after all.

**Author's Note:**

> title from "I Believe in Love" by the Dixie Chicks


End file.
